Age at immigration affects future voter turnout, according to new study

The question of integration is high on the agenda in many countries. An important integration issue is political inclusion, as voter turnout and participation in democratic processes are crucial for the legitimacy of democracy. However, research shows that people with an immigrant background are less likely to vote than others.

"There are good reasons to expect that age at immigration will positively affect voter turnout as an adult. How much and why is, however, empirically complicated to answer, since age at immigration also co-varies with a lot of other things that we in turn believe affect voter turnout, such as time in the country and a variety of family characteristics. A large part of this project is about using a research design that is better than previous studies in examining the effect of age at immigration", says Henrik Andersson

The study investigates whether age at arrival of immigrants in Sweden affects their future voter turnout in national elections. Through population data, it has been possible to compare sibling pairs who immigrated to Sweden as children in the same year but at different ages.

"What we can see is that younger siblings are more likely to vote in national elections as adults. What is surprising is that the difference partly seems to persist over time. Furthermore, the results do not seem to be due to socio-economic differences between the sibling pairs, e.g. that the younger sibling receives better education, income or lives in other areas: the difference in voter turnout must be due to something else", says Henrik Andersson.

If you arrive between the ages of 0 and 5, you are 5 to 10 percentage points more likely to participate in national elections as an adult compared to those who arrive in their teens (12-17 years old).